Alexandra Campbell and The Middle-sized Garden

Words Posy Gentles Photographs Alexandra Campbell

Alexandra Campbell started a YouTube channel five years ago in her mid-60s. Now she is something of a celebrity; not the sort of celebrity who is assailed with panting hysteria but one that provokes a genial familiarity. I have several times been with her when someone quite unknown to her, says: ‘Hello Alexandra!’, smiles and passes on.

Of course they have been watching The Middle-sized Garden YouTube channel which has already attracted 20 million views with Alexandra’s commonsensical and confidence-making approach to everyday gardening, and interviews with leading figures in the gardening world which includes Australia and the United States. Alexandra’s message is the antithesis of the ‘garden makeover’. She says: ‘TV garden makeover programmes are fun but unrealistic. I’m trying to give an honest view of the demands of making your own garden – giving realistic budgets, time scales and expectations.’

The Middle-sized Garden started as a blog before expanding into YouTube. It has just celebrated its 10th birthday and more than nine million page views, and happened almost by accident.

Alexandra’s ninth novel had just been published and her publishers suggested that she might start a blog to push up sales. Obligingly, she took a couple of courses about blogging, saw its potential and started a blog called Write to Promote (now defunct) – a blog aimed at helping technology-shy people to use blogging to promote their work. Soon she was being contacted for classes to teach blogging and decided the best way to demonstrate was to set up an example weekly blog.

Alexandra’s background is in journalism and writing novels. Her first job was in a trade magazine for the beauty industry (which once involved flying to New York for the day on Concorde), then she moved on to She, Good Housekeeping and Harpers & Queen. The birth of twins encouraged a move to freelance journalism. She has written numerous books about interior decoration and style, and nine novels under the names Alexandra Campbell and Nina Bell. Her most recent novel is The Night Lawyer which she wrote in collaboration with the lawyer Sonia Churchill under the conflated name, Alex Churchill. It has already been optioned.

Her view of blogging was that, while the medium was new, the journalistic principles were the same as writing for print – ‘Focus on what the reader wants. There were, and are, many blogs written by people who want to share their experiences, but I wanted to do something more journalistic.’

She decided to make the example blog about gardening as she was trying to develop her own garden. Looking for inspiration and guidance, she was finding there was a great deal written about very large gardens, but surprisingly little about smaller gardens. She called the blog The Middle-sized Garden, and to be clear added the explanatory subtitle, ‘If your garden is bigger than a courtyard, but smaller than an acre’.

The blog set out to appeal to readers who are short of time, short of money and short of space. Alexandra says: ‘A middle-sized garden has its own particular problems. It’s too small for a ride-on mower but you might have a lot of grass. You can have a potting shed or a greenhouse but probably not both.’ From the start, Alexandra’s approach was to share her issues with her readers and find solutions, interviewing horticultural experts, head gardeners and designers. To date she has interviewed many of the most influential gardeners around including Fergus Garrett, Adam Frost, Arit Anderson and many others, and specifically asks them for advice for those who have gardens that are ‘larger than a courtyard, but smaller than an acre’. Alexandra always postions herself with her readers and viewers rather than the experts, and asks the questions they would like to ask.

She ellicits their views when she has a conundrum in her garden – what should she do with this dark corner? – and even as to her new coat – does it sound too rustly on the video? She shares her failures and successes and will show her garden at its scruffiest as well as at its most gorgeous. All is delivered in clear tones, pleasingly reminiscent of Joanna Lumley, and the viewers adore her.

This is a rather typical comment from a viewer: ‘I always am happy to see a new video from you because they remind me of college because you don’t approach it with random walks or flower shots. You have a clear beginning introduction, an informative middle section with experts or expert tips, and a wrap up which includes further resources. I value how you use your journalist expertise to expand our gardening knowledge – and your personality is so charming. Thank you so much for the Middle-Sized Garden. Oh I almost forgot your trademark “Goodbye.” I always watch to the end just to hear that!’

The impact of this approach was swift. Within six months of the launch of The Middle-sized Garden – and it was still at this point just a show blog for Write to Promote – she was contacted by a marketing company saying that it had been ranked sixth of the top 10 gardening blogs in the UK. Alexandra was quite surprised.

So she decided to give up the teaching and focus on the gardening blog but realised that she couldn’t make a living from it. She says: ‘Social media has been great for gardeners who can forge relationships while stuck in their gardens, but it doesn’t directly earn you money.’

Alexandra is not one to shy away from a technological challenge, nor from asking for help. Neil Brown, website designer and photographer, had been a stalwart for her (as well as Faversham Life and many others) in developing her blog. Now she looked at YouTube as a means to develop The Middle-sized Garden.

‘There were two main barriers,’ says Alexandra. ‘The first was psychological – I was in my mid-60s and had it in my head that I was too old to appear on a YouTube channel. I was very nervous about appearing in front of the camera.’

The second barrier was practical. She had already had to learn how to be a photographer; now she was facing the challenge of filming and editing. ‘It just wasn’t something I’d grown up with, nor had any experience of,’ says Alexandra. ‘When I worked on magazines, the writing and visuals were kept firmly apart. As a writer, I wouldn’t dare set foot in the Art Department. To go from that to concentrating on visuals has been very challenging.

‘I knew I was never going to be a professional editor, so I worked out the basics I needed to know – how to upload, download, cut and use b-roll. She went on YouTube, enlisted the help of Faversham photographer Hope Fitzgerald and others, learned these basics and then, Alexandra stepped in front of the camera.

She says: ‘It’s very exciting to have so much creative control. Although it is difficult doing the whole thing – six jobs at once – it’s quite tough!’ YouTube was so impressed, it made her ‘Creator on the Rise’ with her video ‘How to Weed Your Garden’. The lack of nuance in search engines became apparent when comments revealed that a significant proportion of the searchers had hoped it was a video showing how to grow weed in your garden.

In five years, The Middle-sized Garden YouTube channel is fast approaching 20 million views. It has fans all over the world, many in the United States and Australia. It’s hard work and takes Alexandra four days to make a video – ‘At least a quarter of my work is focused on media and technical aspects’ – but she now makes an income from it through YouTube advertising.

Because she uses online media, Alexandra is able to carry out her own market research to check her articles and videos are hitting the right spot. Recent analysis showed that garden design is top of the list at the moment with her videos on Wide Shallow Gardens, Top Five Garden Design Tips and Long Thin Gardens viewed extensively, along with expert videos on individual plants – hydrangeas, dahlias and roses.

Alexandra took a circuitous route to arrive in Faversham 20 years ago. She was born in Gibraltar and spent most of her childhood in South America. When she was 11, her family fled from revolution in the Dominican Republic. They then moved to Peru and when she was 18, she returned to the UK to attend university in Bristol. At some point, she was held up at gunpoint in Colombia. After university, she had several jobs including working as a disc jockey in London nightclubs.

She moved to Faversham from London as a result of a spreadsheet her husband David made to pinpoint which town most satisfied their criteria for moving out of London. She says: ‘I didn’t really want to move but then found in Faversham a friendly, lively and artistic community – many of whom have become very good friends.’ She is an energetic member of this community – including being a prime mover in revitalising the Faversham Open Gardens scheme and an occasional writer and photographer for Faversham Life.

Text: Posy Gentles. Photographs: Alexandra Campbell

 

Faversham Open Gardens and the Garden Market is on 30 June 2024. Anyone interested in opening their garden or taking a stall on the market should contact favershamopengardens@gmail.com. All money raised goes to support the Faversham Society

Alexandra’s favourite recent videos from The Middle-sized Garden of particular interest to Faversham readers

How to Create a Garden Which Looks Gorgeous and Supports Wildlife – interview with Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter

How to Turn a Wide Shallow Backyard into the Perfect Garden – Alexandra says this is proving very popular with people moving into new houses which often have this garden shape

Rustic Cottage Garden Ideas – filmed in Selling and opens for the NGS

A Small Wildlife Garden – Norman Rd in Faversham opens for the NGS

Brilliant Shade Garden Ideas for North-facing Gardens – Open for Faversham Open Gardens

Publications

The Middle-sized Garden Complete Guide to Garden Privacy